Cultivating Somali Xenophobia

I know that that of late there has been a lot of discussions on Somalis and Muslims in Kenya, and that most of the discussion online are basically trash. However with some time on my hand this afternoon, I decided to go over some of the stuff that people are talking about and was quite surprised about how this is developing. Here are some of the stuff I got from my Inbox from a group that calls itself young professionals....

From a Winifred Nyambura...SOMALIS OWN NOTHING IN KENYA AND IT IS ONLY A LEASE. AND SURELY WE ARE REJECTING THE KATIBA ON ONE GROUND - THE CITIZENSHIP LAW IN THIS COUNTY MUST BE AMENDED IMMEDIAETLY -U KNOW SOMALIS ARE COMING TO KENYA AND GIVING BIRTH LIKE RATS SO THAT THEIR KIDS CAN BECOME CITIZENS. SO WE ARECHANGING IT RIGHT AWAY. WE WANT ALL OF THEM WHETHER BORN IN KENYA OR WHEREVER TO GO BACK AND WORK HARD IN THEIR COUNTRY AND PUT IT IN ORDER.

From Chalis ... there is no way we are going to allow useless characters who have f****d their country to destry ours as well. They have to be trimmed, whether they come in as islam or whatever form,as a country we have to act,in fact i have dealt very closely with somalis, muslims,,,call it whatever name. let then take their extremists behaviours, thninking, ideologies etc etc to afghanistan, irag or werever!!!!

From one David Okello..."The muslim brotherhood is well gone over board and it needs to be "trimmed" (they will take this wrong). The Somalis in places like Kajiado are just too many and currently they are building a very big mosque, this is right under the internal ministers nose, his constituency?"

Another writer...We demand that the Army of Kenya take control of the border and checkpoints immediately and replace these APs and Kenya Police. We have just received shocking news that, 4,000,000 (four million) Somalis have crossed Kenyan border and are in Mombasa, Nairobi, Masai Land, Kisumu and are seeping like a bad smell deeper into the rural village communities in Kenya within the last one year

From the same writer as above...The government must not only be worried of this cleric but also the Somalis who are entering Kenya in large numbers and buying not only the Masaais out of the Rift Valley but also turning Nairobi into a Somali city. Kajiado is filled with Somalis who run businesses who cannot express themselves in either English or Swahili. These are Al-Qaeda Fundamentalists imported to create chaos in Kenya and spoil the future of our children.

Okay, I will reserve my comments for later...

New Year New Perspectives

This year I decided to change the nature of the my blog...the previous one never really got going because I think what I was trying to say was just all over the place. Most of the Kenyan blogs are political or have have political inclinations, or have a 'development' mindset and these thoughts are just all over. I therefore could not really find anything to say, either because everybody is saying the same thing, or everybody wants to talk and not listen. This year I want to engage more on my reflections, on anything. I am not going to be trying to get anybody to read or listen to me, but rather I intend to be doing more of listening to others and talking to myself...okay, maybe this does not make sense but who cares? I feel I need to talk to myself more about my work, my family, my friendships, frustrations etc...instead of this notion of badilisha Kenya, more about badilisha Myself. Then I will perhaps write more regularly...